GDC 06: Pandemic's Six-Game Plan

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What is Pandemic up to outside of FSW: Ten Hammers?

By Douglass C. Perry

In the same meeting room with the collective brains of the well-known Canadian RPG maker, BioWare, Pandemic Director of Production Greg Borrud spoke to IGN about making open design games like Mercenaries and the inevitable sequel to 2005's number one selling unique IP.

"Mercenaries sold well enough to warrant a second try," said Borrud. "It was the number one selling new intellectual property in 2005. It performed best on PS2, but still sold well on Xbox." When asked whether the company was working in partnership with publisher LucasArts on the potential project, Borrud declined a direct answer. "We haven't officially announced such a game," he said, smiling.

Mercenaries was one of the more surprising games of last year.

IGN has learned from sources outside the company that the sequel to Mercenaries is in the works, though a firm contract with a publisher hasn't been worked out yet. Of course, it's entirely possible that Mercenaries 2 will appear at E3 without a publisher (and if that's the case, it will certainly leave with one), though Borrud declined to comment directly on the yet-to-be-announced game.

But he was willing to talk about open-design style games like Mercenaries. "It's more economical to make big, open worlds," he explained. "Creating living, breathing worlds makes a lot of sense. You develop these fantastic environments and, as opposed to a linear game where you only see the level once, you'll see it multiple times."

Borrud also told IGN that Pandemic is currently working on six games, split between current- and next-generation systems. "Our heads are down and we're busy building tech engines to be used for the next four to five years. We're working on a balance of original and licensed games," he explained.

The chances of seeing another Battlefront are pretty high.

The only officially announced game Pandemic has been confirmed to be working on is Full Spectrum Warrior: Ten Hammers, due for release next week on Xbox, PS2, and PC. If Mercenaries 2 is in the hopper, that's a second title, and given its enormous success with Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2, it's likely that's a third. In previous meetings with LucasArts, the publisher also declined to comment on any plans for a sequel to Mercenaries. Borrud wouldn't mention any titles. "At least one of our games will appear at E3 this year," he said.